Life Well-Seasoned

Author: Tracey

February is Black History Month and to celebrate, I have joined up with 27 of the best black food bloggers from around the globe for a Virtual Potluck! From African to Creole, Caribbean to Southern there is something for everybody; with each blogger contributing their very own recipes in a number of categories (Meat Entree, Seafood Entree, Vegetarian Entree, Beverage and Dessert) to share with you each day of Black History Month. Check out and try some of the other amazing recipes from our participating bloggers listed at the end of this post! Those who know me well, know that I love a good brunch. If I’m totally honest, I would tell you that I pretty much live for brunch. Thoughts of where we’re going for brunch on on the weekend tend to dominate my late-week thoughts. I may or may not have a spreadsheet showing which brunch places in town serve bottomless mimosas… Advertisements

About four years ago, my husband and I attended a charity dinner in town called Project Dinner Table. It was the first long table dinner I had ever attended and I’ve been obsessed with hosting one ever since. There is something about being seated at a dinner party with 100 other people that stirs my imagination in a profound way. It isn’t just the food; it is the communal experience– a feeling of being a part of something really special and really BIG. Last weekend after about 8 weeks of planning and cooking for what seemed to be forever, I was finally able to make that long table dinner party dream a reality and hosted my very first FEED Supper. It was an incredible experience, combining the things that I enjoy the most: feeding a lot of people, eating great food, and making a difference! Each year, beginning on September 16 and culminating on World Food Day, October 16, hosts around the globe join together to “truly share a meal” with their dinner guests. The premise is so simple: host a supper and ask your dinner …

This post was created in partnership with Uncommon Goods, purveyors of unique and wonderful things! I cannot believe that we are halfway through September, which means only two more weeks until my favorite month and my favorite season of the year! Seriously, after a long, terribly hot summer, I am so ready to crawl out of my self-imposed indoor seclusion and get reacquainted with the world again. I think every September I go through a kind of nesting syndrome. In January, I’m ready to throw everything away–remember my attacks of minimalism? But by September, I’m ready to decorate EVERYTHING. But here’s the thing they don’t tell you about minimalism: after a few years of it, you come to the realization that you don’t have any things! I know…that’s kind of the point. But after I while, I’m starting to get the feeling that I want to be surrounded by a few more pretty things. So, it was perfect timing when Uncommon Goods reached out to me to collaborate on this post. At first, I was actually paralyzed with indecision. You …

I’m not normally a person who obsesses over things. But when I received a copy of the February issue of Bon Appetit in the mail, I couldn’t stop obsessing over the cover photo. In the photo was the darkest, crustiest loaf of homemade bread, nestled in the cast iron pot it was baked in and the article inside promised a homemade bread that would rival those found in professional bakeries. The recipe was daunting. In fact, it was a recipe that would fill a weekend. I’m more of a mix-up-a-batch-of no-knead bread kind of woman, not a woman who spends an entire weekend kneading dough. But as the months went on, I couldn’t quit this bread. The magazine kept appearing on my desk, its cover photo beckoning to me. Once it landed on my kitchen counter, I knew there was no point in resisting anymore. So, finally, a couple of weekends ago, I tried it. The bread was high maintenance–just as I knew it would be. It stretched the boundaries of what I thought bread …

This exquisite lamb dish was provided by The Hess Collection. A very special thank you to The Hess Collection for sponsoring this post and providing this wonderful wine. In my opinion, few meals are as impressive to serve or as pleasurable to prepare as a rack of lamb. Lamb is always accompanied by the feeling that “something special is happening” and I usually reserve it for special occasions: Valentine’s Day, anniversary dinners, or birthdays. I remember when I was young, and my brothers were little, my mother would buy a tiny package of lamb chops and squirrel them away for a rare, quiet morning when she could make them for her breakfast–always with a sunny-side up egg and a side of buttery, steaming grits. My picky little brothers would have sooner eaten soil than that exquisite meal, but I knew better and would hover around the kitchen, hoping that she’d save a bite of lamb chop for me. I suspect those lamb chop breakfasts were few and far between because the lamb was (and still is) very expensive and because of …

It’s that time of year again when I gorge myself on ripe, sweet cherries! I just can’t walk by a display of cherries in the grocery store without buying a bag, because it’s the one time that they won’t completely break the bank! Have you seen them priced at $9.99 per pound before? I have and it freaks me out. So, I exercise restraint throughout the year and go cherry crazy right about now. During cherry season, you’ll find me with a bowl of cherries tucked in my lap and munching away contentedly with no need to do anything further to distract from this lusciously sweet treat. Plain cherries are just fine with me, but I suppose if I wrote a blog post about a bowl of cherries, you might look at me a little funny. Recently, on the way to work I was listening to an episode of The Splendid Table as Jen Stevenson, co-writer of the book, The Picnic and member of the Portland Picnic Society (well, of course Portland has a picnic society, doesn’t your town?) was discussing …